


Welcome Home

by a_little_push



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: Domestic, Episode: s03e04 I Am Become Death, Gen, Nathan is a dick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-22
Updated: 2012-07-22
Packaged: 2017-11-10 12:41:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/466395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_little_push/pseuds/a_little_push
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter never got a welcome anywhere but here and he wasn't sure he deserved it, no matter what Gabriel told him.</p><p>(An "I Am Become Death"-'verse story)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome Home

There was a heaviness to him he felt that had nothing to do with weight and more to do with a twisting of past and present all while butterflies mocked him with pretty flapping wings. Leaning his head against the wood of the front door warmed by a California sun, Peter closed his eyes and wondered again if it was a good idea to return here, to this house. As he wondered every time, but that fact didn't stop him from straightening up.

Fingers curled around the knob as he pushed a door unlocked open, while he mentally chided his brother for being so careless, so trusting espically with the way the world had gone to shit in so few years. Still, as he stood on the front step and gazed at the toys strewn about the front hall and a new fingerpainting hanging on the wall, Peter couldn't help but smile even if the motion tugged at his scar and that reminded him of his failures.

He pushed those thoughts away.

He heard his nephew before he saw him, excitement sending him flying with loud steps down the stairs with a joyful cry of "Uncle Peter!" and Peter knelt to catch Noah in the hug the child lunged at him with. Small arms wrapped around his neck, the young boy's smile wide and innocent in a way that made a lump threaten to form in Peter's throat as it always did.

"Welcome back Peter" he heard his brother say and looked up to see Gabriel leaning against a door frame, a warm smile on his lips and in his eyes, "Glad to see they didn't kill you this time" he added, softer.

There was nowhere else in the world anymore where people were glad to see him but this house, nowhere else that he would be welcomed because he had been missed. No, to the rest of the world he was a criminal and better off dead.

Detaching himself from Noah, who flashed him another smile before running off back to whatever play he had been at before Peter's arrival interrupted him, Peter stood and reached behind him to shut the front door. "They tried, too bad" he said finally, not sure what was too bad, sagging back against the door as he let his chin drop onto his chest and his eyes drop shut.

He heard the soft footsteps as Gabriel approached him and felt the gentle hands pulling him back upright onto his feet. "Peter" his brother whispered and Peter heard him stumble over a few words before he settled on, "You must be hungry. Come on, there is some leftover pasta from dinner last night".

Peter thought about saying he wasn't hungry, that he couldn't stay. But he didn't. Gabriel wouldn't listen to him. Had never listened to him when he was Sylar and he was the villain, didn't now as Gabriel and the man who tried so hard to be good. For his son, for him- his brother. "I saw Nathan" he commented as he was pushed down onto a stool next to the island of counter in the kitchen.

Gabriel looked at him over his shoulder before returning attention to the contents of the fridge, searching. "Really?"

"Yeah. He wanted to talk"

"And did you talk?"

Peter scoffed and Gabriel just shook his head, because he really should have expected that. "Did you argue?"

"We exchanged... heated words. Before of course I had to leave because Nathan cheated and brought guns he had hidden"

"Hmm"

The fridge was shut and pasta was scooped onto a plate before being transferred into the microwave usually used for dino-shaped chicken nuggets and maple syrup. Peter knew Gabriel was more likely to eat leftovers cold himself, as he worked on his latest book about a powerless man who struggled to find his place in a power-filled world (written under a pen name of course). The microwave dinged and within seconds a steaming plate of fettuccine alfredo was set in front of him.

"I'm not hungry" he mumbled, but picked up the fork anyways, finding that once he had taken a few bites that he was actually hungry. Nor could he remember the last time he'd eaten food that wasn't snatched in moments between running and trying to change things. Not that anything ever changed, at least not for the better.

It wasn't long before he'd eaten all of it and considered for a moment asking for more, but didn't.

He opened his mouth to say he was going to leave now, but Gabriel grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the stairs. Peter just followed his older brother obediently as he was led up the stairs, past Noah's room where he could hear the boy making the sounds of little boys idea of warfare, until he was pulled into Gabriel's bedroom.

"Gabriel?" he questioned as his brother turned to face him and released his hand. He didn't get an answer as Gabriel unbuttoned the buttons of his coat, pushing it off his shoulders and onto the floor. Gabriel crouched and untied his shoes, tugging first one off and then the other. Next he pulled off Peter's socks. Standing up again, this time his fingers undid the buttons of Peter's shirts and pushed that off too. "Gabriel?" he repeated.

"A shower will do you some good and make you feel better" Gabriel answered finally, grabbing his bare shoulders and pulled then pushed him towards the door to the master bathroom, "Get in there and take one. Or else I'll strip your pants and underwear off and wash you like I do Noah"

Peter made a small face, but sighed. Gabriel was pushy, always had been no matter his name. "Okay okay" he said, holding his hands up in defeat. Minutes later when he was standing under the warm spray, he had to admit that once again Gabriel was right, it was making him feel better.

Fingers traced the scars on his skin he managed to gain, never mind how he did so with regeneration, they were there the same. Maybe he somehow subconsciously stopped them from healing? Some sort of longing for a physical reminder of his more violent failures? Shaking his head so hard it almost made him dizzy, he grabbed blindly at the soap.

As he scrubbed at his skin, he forced himself not to think. To just pretend that the world was normal and safe and that it wasn't going to end.

Turning off the water once it was starting to turn cold and stepping dripping out of the shower onto tile, he glanced at the window to see a darkened sky outside. Which made him wonder just how long he'd stop trying not to think as the hot water burned his skin and filled the air around him with steam.

It also made him wonder what he was going to wear because it was very likely Gabriel had stolen his clothes to wash them. A splash of black out of the corner of his eye in the pale colour scheme of the bathroom caught his eye and he turned to see a set of pajamas sitting on the counter, a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, clean underwear tucked under the shirt.

Another smile, this place- this house always made him smile more then he ever did outside.

Pulling on the clothes that smelled of detergent and safety, Peter toweled his hair just enough for it not be annoyingly wet but didn't bother past that. He slipped out of the bathroom into a bedroom dark except for a small light that Gabriel was reading by as he sat in the bed. His brother looked up at him and smiled over his glasses, slipping them off as he set them and his book aside.

"I'll go to a guest room" Peter mumbled but then felt the touch of telekinesis pulling his legs towards the bed, "Thought you didn't use your powers anymore" he added as he stopped fighting and climbed onto the bed and under the covers.

"Only rarely, very rarely" Gabriel responded as he turned the small light off and laid down himself.

Peter laid on his side in the bed, feeling awkward and out of place in so normal a situation as this one was. A bed to stretch out in and sleep rather then curling in a hiding place with one eye open and never resting, a person who didn't wish him any harm. He laughed once that the person he got the most safety from now was the one who tried the hardest to kill him in the past.

Gabriel seemed to understand what the laugh was about, he always seemed to understand everything and sometimes he infuriated Peter and others he was so glad for it. He wasn't sure which it was this time. His brother's hand wrapped around him and pulled him close, cradling him in his arms. "You shouldn't be trying to save the world alone Peter" Gabriel whispered and shuddered causing Peter to reach out and cling to him to try and offer some comfort back, "The world-"

"Always needs saving, I know" Peter finished and closed his eyes, letting out a heavy sigh.

"I know you know. You could stop, you could find someone with shape-shifting and not have to fight anymore" Gabriel urged, but he'd said it so many times before and he knew it would be ignored, so his urging wasn't that strong, "You could just stay here" he added in a whisper that almost broke Peter's heart with it's undertone of anguish.

 _I wish I could_ , he thought as he clung tighter.

Neither of them said another word, just laid there and pretended to fall asleep. Because once they fell asleep, the morning would come and Peter would be gone and Gabriel knew it. And both wanted to hold onto the moments they had with the other, for they were precious and so far and few in between. 

**Author's Note:**

> It's a silly pointless side note but in my head because they are a 'part' of the family, Gabriel and Noah go by the last name Petrelli instead of Gray. 
> 
> I used to have a whole file full of IABD-verse head canon but I lost it when my laptop died.


End file.
